Ward 5 DFL official asks for apology over ‘lost’ delegate book allegations

By Melody Hoffmann, Reporter and David Pierini, Editor

North Minneapolis was dragged into the DFL city convention drama this summer with an overturned endorsement and several claims of disenfranchisement.

The Minneapolis DFL city convention on July 19 resulted in the overturned endorsement of Sen. Omar Fateh for Minneapolis mayor after 98 people filed complaints with the State DFL, including accusations that a book containing Ward 5 delegate information was lost.

North News investigated numerous claims about Ward 5 delegate data through interviews with the Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist, Ward 5 co-chair Viviana Salazar, Minneapolis DFL city convention credentialing committee members, and Ward 5 delegates.

No delegates were purposefully disenfranchised at the city convention, however, there was evidence of disorganization at the Ward 5 precinct caucuses that bled into the city convention.

There is no evidence to show that this disorganization would have changed the outcome of the first round of voting at the city convention, which was the source of the majority of complaints to the Minnesota DFL after the July 19 convention.

“I want people to know the books were never lost. Everything was turned in,” Salazar said in an interview with North News. Salazar said she was hesitant to turn over the ward’s only hard copy to the Minneapolis DFL in case it was lost.

According to the Minnesota DFL State Constitution, Bylaws, and Rules Committee ruling on Aug. 21, people who challenged the endorsement of Fateh proved “based upon clear and convincing evidence” that the credential and upgrading process was flawed.

In its findings, the CBRC’s first example was “the entire Ward 5 credentials book was lost by the Minneapolis DFL, causing delegates to have to reestablish delegate status.”

North News found evidence to the contrary. “The Minneapolis DFL needs to apologize to Ward 5 for losing the books and not taking accountability,” Salazar said.

What happened to the Ward 5 delegate book?

The hard copy Ward 5 delegate book was picked up from Andrew Beeman, a credentials committee member for the Minneapolis DFL, on July 10 from Salazar’s house. This book contained the same delegate data that Ward 5 volunteers entered into a spreadsheet.

The Minneapolis DFL collects physical copies of ward delegate books as a best practice so the credential committee members can check the data against the digital records for any major errors.

Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist said the credential committee found “a few” discrepancies but stopped short of calling them suspicious because clerical errors are common.

“There’s a lot of paperwork and there are things that get written down wrong,” Maraist said. “There’s a whole lot of information, so 99 times out of a hundred it’s not nefarious.”

The narrative of a “lost” Ward 5 delegate book began at the city convention, when someone with the Minneapolis DFL said they couldn’t find the Ward 5 delegate information, which made it sound to Salazar as if she hadn’t provided the books.

The Ward 5 data was filed in a separate Google Drive folder that some members of the credentials committee could not find on July 19. This created confusion that the Ward 5 delegate book was lost.

“That frustrated me,” Beeman said. “That was an incredibly verifiably false claim.”

This narrative led to complaints of lost Ward 5 delegate data being submitted to the CBRC committee.

According to Beeman, no one from the CBRC reached out to him about the complaint. But a “lost” delegate book was not the only problem Ward 5 faced on July 19.

Some Ward 5 delegates were confused by a change in their delegate status upon arrival, likely stemming from how the data was initially collected.

At various precinct caucuses on April 8, delegates were chosen to represent Ward 5 at the DFL city convention in July.

“During the precinct caucuses this year, it was pure chaos,” Adrita Rahman, a Ward 5 delegate and a Minneapolis DFL credentials committee volunteer, said. “Somebody shared this loose-leaf paper, like a page torn out of a notebook, and just told people to write their names down.”

Rahman said comparatively, the 20024 Senate district convention caucus was run “really well.”

“We had a chair who was very, very, very competent,” Rahman said.

Rahman said this year that the looseleaf sheets of paper lacked clear instructions for people to indicate whether they were part of a subcaucus for a specific mayoral candidate.

“It was very disorganized. I remember, for the precinct I was working on, most people didn't write down the

subcaucus they were in,” Rahman said. The Minneapolis DFL allows each ward flexibility in how it runs its caucuses, including what data it collects and how it elects its delegates. That can include what subcaucus a delegate belongs to.

During her data entry work, Rahman observed that people were registered as delegates in the wrong precinct.

“If you're elected as a delegate, but you don't live there, you get taken off and assigned as an alternate for another precinct,” Rahman said.

At least two Ward 5 delegates had their positions changed after they arrived at the city convention. According to Rahman, one delegate was in a precinct subcaucus for Sen. Omar Fateh. In February, he was told he’d be first in line in July to be an alternative delegate, in case someone didn’t show up from his precinct. His position was switched to fourth alternate on July 19.

The other delegate, Georgianna Yantos, said she had planned to vote for Mayor Jacob Frey when she was elected as a city delegate.

“I didn’t have the minutes with me, so I couldn’t present them,” Yantos said. On July 19, “They said, ‘Well, you can be a third alternate.’ I said, ‘I am supposed to be a delegate, but you don’t even have my name in the computer.’ It’s like I don’t exist.”

Yantos was one of the 98 people who filed a complaint with the Minnesota DFL.